Milton Bradley’s Wrigley Field debut unlikely left a lasting impression with the Chicago Cub faithful.  If it’s any consolation to Bradley, neither did the rest of his teammates.

In Thursday’s first of 16 meetings with the St. Louis Cardinals this season, both Bradley and the Cubs didn’t just come up short.  They came up empty.

Call it a game of missed opportunities.

For Bradley, his chance to make a memorable entrance into the Chicago Cubs baseball fold began as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning and ended on a called third strike and an ejection from home plate umpire Larry Vanover.

The timing couldn’t have been less perfect.  Chicago had loaded the bases for Bradley, but his whiff and Alfonso Soriano’s fly out to left ended the threat.

It was that kind of day.  It was that kind of a game.

While Bradley was being ejected, the Cubs were failing to execute.  Three St. Louis errors along with four walks and six hits wasn’t enough for Chicago to overcome another lackluster offensive showing and more inconsistent pitching from the Cubs bullpen.

“It’s a bad game,” Alfonso Soriano said, following the 7-4 loss. “We lost that game, and we were supposed to win it. There’s no excuse. We had a lot of opportunities to win the game, and we lost.”

Chicago’s loss was the Cardinals’ gain, as they moved two games ahead of the Cubs in the Central Division standings.  While this was the first of a four-game weekend set and the season is still young these early meetings between the division rivals may be more impacting than one might think.

The Cubs and Cardinals will meet 15 more times this season.  Only three of the remaining games come after the All-Star break, a three-game series in September at St. Louis.

Through nine games the best that can be said about the Cubs season thus far is that’s it’s been uneven.

Beyond Ted Lilly’s one-hit effort on Monday, the starting pitching has been mediocre at best.  The offense, meanwhile, has yet to show the kind of production it displayed in 2008.  And the bullpen has teetered on disaster with the exception of Carlos Marmol.

The Cubs will have their three top pitchers - Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster and Lilly - scheduled for the remainder of this series.  Although the season is young, the way the Cardinals are playing, the Cubs can’t afford too many swings and misses like Thursday.